1. Field of the Invention
Aspects of the present invention generally relate to an image forming apparatus, a control method of the image forming apparatus, and a storage medium storing a program.
2. Description of the Related Art
Image forming apparatuses such as conventional printers, multi functional peripherals (MFPs) having a lot of functions in addition to the print function, and printing presses have a problem of variation in density and tints in printing results due to the passage of time, the number of printed sheets, and the like. To solve the problem, techniques for adding a function (adjustment function) of performing an adjustment process on the image forming apparatuses to regulate the variation in tints, and the like within a certain range are used.
For example, in a case of an electrophotographic type image forming apparatus, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-125986 discusses an adjustment function for adjusting a tint based on an image formed on an intermediate transfer member. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-125986 further discusses another adjustment function for adjusting a starting position in image writing. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-311506 discusses another adjustment function for adjusting a temperature of a fixing device.
The above-described function adjustment processes, however, are performed between image formation processes in printing desired by users, and the processes may decrease the print processing speed in the printing desired by the user.
To cope with the problem, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-62580 discusses a method of preventing decrease in processing speeds the users feel by performing an adjustment process simultaneously with a process other than the adjustment process. More specifically, a method of performing, for example, a rendering process of page description language (PDL) data as the process other than the adjustment process simultaneously with the adjustment process to prevent the decrease in processing speeds is discussed. One of the PDL data techniques, PostScript (registered trademark) is known.
The method of preventing the processing speed decrease by performing an adjustment process simultaneously with another adjustment process, however, cannot eliminate the adjustment process itself, and consequently, in the adjustment process, there is still an interval between the image formation.
Moreover, for example, in the above-described method of performing the adjustment process simultaneously with the rasterization process of the PDL data, the processing time necessary for the PDL data rasterization process is not considered. Consequently, if the rasterization process is completed faster than the adjustment process, the image formation is still delayed.